Can’t we all just get along?
Burger King recently rolled out the red carpet, wrapped a PR firestorm in silk, lobbed it out to McDonald’s, and McD’s failed miserably. Burger King recently took out a full-page, open-letter-style ad in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, calling for a truce with McDonald’s and suggesting they join forces to create a “MCWhopper” burger for the sake of world peace.
BK proposed the two corporations partner with Peace One Day, a nonprofit group seeking to raise awareness of the International Day of Peace, and raise money via the sales of the MCWhoppers.
BK even went as far as building a website, designing packaging, uniforms, and producing a the PR pitch heard around the world… MCDonald’s quickly stomped the idea out with it’s red floppy oversized wingtips, and the public is not happy.
When @bluskyz00 asked entrepreneur, investor, author, public speaker, and digital media wizz Gary Vaynerchuck, “What do you think of [McDonald’s] response to [Burger Kings’s] “PeaceMcWhopper” idea? Seems like they missed a big opp.”
Gary responded with one of his usual, energetic, ADD-saturated rants that I love him for. Basically, he effectively said that he thinks business is going in a direction where public battles via social media and public forums is going to be the norm, and that McDonald’s is taking a more ‘serious’ approach to BK’s lighthearted request. He also goes on to say, “We are clearly living in interesting times where Burger King can make a micro site to make this announcement and McDonald’s official answer is in a Facebook post – in sentence form.
If you haven’t realized that communication has changed forever in our society please let this be [the] moment…”
I know this doesn’t necessarily answer @bluskyzoo’s question, but I think Gary makes a good point. This social media bellyflop may stand as a small marker in history as the time times officially changed. (and McDonalds was mad an example of)
Check the full video pitch here:
